Why teach coding to high school students?

Across the globe, many companies are struggling to fill IT positions that require coding and programming skills. Whether the company is a new tech start-up, a thriving financial institution or a blue chip manufacturer, chances are good that they have lots of programming positions to fill but are finding it challenging to source skilled and experienced staff from the local pool of resources.

If more people were pursuing Computer Science degrees, then these positions would be easier to fill. The problem doesn’t start at a tertiary education level, however, it starts in middle and high schools with a lack of STEM programs.

While many middle schools and high schools have implemented computer labs and computer literacy courses as part of their STEM curriculum, there is still a lot that can be done to pique students’ interest around computer programming and give them the tools and resources they need to develop these STEM skills to ensure a brighter future.

To develop computer coding skills is a challenge for many countries around the world. In America, the computer Science Teachers Association published a 75-page report listing reasons why schools in the United States are failing at teaching coding for kids.

A common denominator between global challenges and America’s teaching computer coding challenges is that schools follow a national teaching curriculum, which makes it tough to allocate time and resources to computer coding modules and stem programs.

Other challenges that many schools around the globe face is that they don’t have dedicated computer rooms or skilled teachers who are able to teach kids computer code. Another challenge with computer coding programs for kids is that computer studies are often grouped into existing mathematics or science subjects, which leads to a lack of time being dedicated to STEM programs for middle school.

One way CoderZ helps tackle this problem is through providing an online and educational learning environment that help kids learn how to code. Many teachers and schools have already started using our platform as a training partner in teaching code to kids.

Everybody uses technology in their daily lives. Most of our kids do not know the world in any other way. In the past, computers were slow and computer programming was limited to a niche group of people who were analytical and good at mathematics.

In today’s world this is far from the case. Each of us – and even kids – has a smartphone in our pockets that is faster and more powerful than the computers used to launch moon missions in the sixties.

Many tech giants, like Google and Microsoft, have created apps and websites that are focused on teaching kids to code. Codecademy, for example, has a lot of resources that makes it easy and engaging for anyone to learn to code.

Just take a look at what the mayor of Chicago had to say back in 2015 about including coding and computer science to every school.

The fundamentals of programming, such as If / Then loops, can be taught to a child at a very early age. Scratch is an interesting program to teach coding for children. The idea is based on ‘plug in programming’ adults and children find this tool very fun and easy to use.

A lot of kids are motivated to make apps because they are familiar with tablets and smartphones. Apple has a new coding apps language for kids called Swift that is a very good when teaching coding language. MIT has also launched App Inventor, an Android app.

All of this is being done because people see the value of teaching kids to code. Software programming is an important life skill that can help children progress in life. Invest in tomorrow’s programmers by teaching kids a programming language.

Programming robots and programming for kids is fun and engaging. Our online learning environment has been built to offer a supportive teaching structure with challenging STEM activities. By using a web-based 3D simulator we provide an affordable way to bring robotics and computer coding to everyone.

Teachers, are you ready to take your STEM projects to the next level of excellence? Then find out more about CoderZ to teach kids programming while they incorporate all the abilities the 21st century requires.